“We all wanted to change for a while now,” Pugh said. “It didn’t work out with the last coaching staff. With the new coaches, they didn’t care. It was up to us. The three senior linebackers, we all wanted to do something cool for our last year, so we did 2, 3 and 4.”

The Huskies’ leading tackler a season ago, Jones-Davis (130 tackles, 14.5 tackles for loss) returns after starting all 14 games and earning first-team All-Mid-American Conference honors.
Pugh was a second-team All-MAC linebacker who tallied 106 tackles, including five for loss.

Deveaux, who registered 67 tackles last season, joins fellow Florida product Jones-Davis as pals in one of the more experienced position groups in the conference. Deveaux had wanted to change his number for years, as well.

“We just got together and talked about it,” Deveaux said. “We [wanted] to do something in numerical order, so we decided 2, 3, 4 and thought it looked nice.”

[Mark Busch - mbusch@shawmedia.com]

The group, which loves chirping on the field about outperforming one another, is driven by the competition of getting to the football.

“I can speak for the group in saying that neither one of us wants to be outdone by the other, so it’s a race to the ball,” Pugh said. “You take the wrong step, you take a false step or anything like that and Antonio and Lance are going to beat you to the ball. We push each other in that way.”

Deveaux echoed that sentiment.

“I told them before we started fall camp, ‘Last one to the ball is a rotten egg.’ So you know you don’t want to be that last guy,” Deveaux said.

[Mark Busch - mbusch@shawmedia.com]

Backup middle linebacker Vinny Labus, a sophomore from Park Ridge who intercepted a pass in the fourth quarter of last year’s 24-16 win over Central Michigan, smiles when he thinks about the constant joking that goes on between the linebackers.

“They always give each other little remarks here and there,” Labus said. “You can tell how tight a group they are ... especially in the locker room. They’re always making jokes with each other.”

First-year Huskies linebackers coach Robert Wimberly, in addition to focusing on reestablishing fundamentals, wants his elder linebackers to lay the foundation that creates further depth in younger linebackers, such as Jordan Cole, Joseph Bonds, Rayshawn Gay and Kewan Parker.

[Kaleb Carter]

Having a group led by seniors at the linebacker position is a comfort to Derrick Jackson, who’s in his first year as the Huskies’ defensive coordinator.

“The first advantage to having a senior-laden group at linebacker is you’ve got a lot of playing experience,” Jackson said. “You’ve got a lot of guys that have knowledge of how to take care of their bodies, how to go about the everyday grind of meetings, walkthroughs, lifting, how to get your rest at night, a lot of guys that can show the young guys the course of success before you even get to the football field.”

[Kaleb Carter]

After three bowl losses in his time at NIU, Pugh has his eyes set on a bowl victory as a redshirt senior.

“I think none of us would be moved by just another MAC championship,” Pugh said. “That’s not where our mindset is right now. We’re trying to do something that hasn’t been done in a long time. We’re going to take it one game at a time, but my personal goal would be to leave with a bowl victory.”